Cosmetics typically are intended to provide an attractive appearance through the use of color, e.g., by highlighting certain features of the face and/or accentuating natural colors. Colored cosmetics are used, for example, to accentuate lines of separation (eye liners and lip liner), to provide sensuous color to portions of the skin (lipsticks and glosses), and to provide a "healthy glow" to the cheeks (blushes and rouges). Cosmetics may also protect the skin (e.g., by blocking the skin from harmful ultraviolet light). A variety of coloring agents can also be used to color cosmetics, including inorganic and organic dyes or pigments.
Compositions having an opalescent quality are desirable because of their aesthetic light-reflecting properties. One known opalescent composition is described in Marx et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,845, which uses copolymers of one or more monovinyl-substituted aromatic compounds with one or more copolymerizable conjugated dienes. That composition is encapsulated in transparent containers and sealed for use in various decorative effects, such as jewelry, and reflective signal devices. Another opalescent composition is described in Willcox U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,581. That composition is solid and comprised of a substantially clear, colorless organic polymeric solid matrix and particles of titanium dioxide dispersed therein. The solid composition described by Willcox was designed for making decorative opalescent objects and forms, such as solid films, hard lacquers, and nylon fibers.
Although Marx et al. and Willcox describe opalescent compositions, they do not describe compositions comprising hydrogenated indene-styrene-vinyltoluene polymers. In fact, as far as applicants are aware, such polymers have never been used to provide an opalescent quality to any composition, let alone one suitable for topical application to human skin. Rather, these hydrogenated polymers have been used as tackifiers, such as for use with pressure sensitive adhesive tapes and hot melt systems. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,676 and Japanese Patent No. 3 296 584.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide aesthetically pleasing compositions that have an opalescent quality and are suitable for topical application to human skin.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide opalescent cosmetic compositions that contain hydrogenated indene-styrene-vinyltoluene polymers.
An additional object of this invention is to provide methods for preparing and using such compositions.